Former des scientifiques engagés et actifs pour concilier biodiversité et sociétés humaines. De l’état de l’art à la médiation scientifique / Train committed and active scientists to reconcile biodiversity and human societies. From scientific review to mediation

Abstract

The rapid deterioration of the state of biodiversity on a Mediterranean and planetary scale calls for a global response of ecological transition from our societies. One of the levers identified is to mobilize the higher education community in raising awareness and educating on ecological transition. Scientific mediation is a mean to allow dissemination and appropriation of such scientific issues within society. Moreover, it constitutes a participatory and creative approach, placing the learner at the center of the educational process. To reconcile biodiversity and human societies, and to promote the conservation of emblematic marine and terrestrial vertebrate species, two different scientific mediation actions are presented. In a first case, a board game was designed to better understand the biology and ecology of Mediterranean turtle, shark and cetacean species, to better identify the threats to these populations, and to raise awareness on conservation actions and on scientific studies and monitoring of this threatened fauna. In a second case, a short video was developed to decipher the issues of coexistence of human activities with three predators : the harrier, the fox, and the wolf. In addition to the knowledge of these species, the mediation emphasizes the questions of occupation of territories, zoonosis, and competition for resources to shed light on the conflicts between humans and predators. The development of such a scientific mediation approach constitutes a new challenge for higher education, which finds itself immersed in an unprecedented framework : the ecological emergency that our society is facing.